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Warlock builds
Warlock talent builds are many and varied. Each tree is worth spec'ing up to 41 points in, and many Destruction builds invest more than 41 points in their primary tree. Regardless of which path a player eventually chooses, it is sure to be littered with many tough choices. To play around with the build talents and maximize DPS for raids and instances, be sure to check out this Warlock DPS Calculator ;See also: * Warlock Talents 201 Affliction The DOTs Curse of Agony and Corruption are some of the most mana-effective spells available for the Warlock. That is, the amount of damage per mana is higher compared to Direct Damage spells like Shadow Bolt. The Affliction talent tree can improve on these even more. There are problems using DOTs in parties and raids. There is a risk that the mob is killed before the completion of a DOT. This is especially bad for Curse of Agony, that causes more of its damage near the end of its duration. If this happens, then mana and time will be wasted. When in a 40-man raid, there is also the risk that a mob will get more than 16 debuffs or DOTs, which will force one or more of them to be removed. Because of this, some raid leaders restrict what DOTs are allowed. Edit - The maximum allowable DOTs will be increased with the release of the Burning Crusade expansion, making all Affliction builds much more viable for end game Level 70 Builds Unstable Affliction 41/7/11 Talent Calculator Link This build goes to the end of the affliction tree to get another DoT (Unstable Affliction) which does a large amount of instant damage if dispelled and silences the dispeller. It also has 11 points in Destruction to get Shadowburn and 7 points in Demonology for Improved Healthstone and Demonic Embrace. Notes: *Two points in Suppression gives a 99% chance of hitting an equal level character, which is the most possible. Points from Shadow Embrace or Empowered Corruption may be moved here if combatting higher level mobs/players. *Improved Howl of Terror, Contagion, and Unstable Affliction at the end of the tree make this build much more suitable for PVP. Contagion/Demonic Sacrifice (SM/DS with Contagion) 40/21/0 Talent Calculator Link I ran this build from 63-70, first getting instant cast Howl of Terror, then DS. It's pretty sick for solo grinding, with a high sustained DPS. Certainly not as high burst damage as a destruction build, but with a sac'ed VW and drain life you really have no down time. Basically only kill one mob at a time, open with an Immolate, then instant-cast Corruption, CoA, and Siphon. Lifetap to get some of the mana spent back, then DL. You'll hit NFs left and right, so use them whenever you get them. If you want to have fun you can juggle 3 or 4 mobs at your level. Just Siphon, Corrupt, and CoA them all, DL to keep your life high. The Siphons, Fel Stamina, and Drain Life will keep your HP up, but you can always howl and bandage if you get in trouble. The Following are potential evolutions of the old SM/Ruin specs Dark Pact/Ruin (SM/Ruin with DP) 40/0/21 This first one continues on the Affliction Tree. Talent Calculator Linkhttp://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=12023710&sid=1 Dark Pact/Emberstorm (Natural Evolution of SM/Ruin) 31/0/31 This second one picks up DP for the infinite mana Affliction locks know and love, but moves to Emberstorm as well. Here you will get +10% to both Shadow and Fire spells, which means that the Immolate/Incinerate spam can be changed out for the Corruption/ShadowBolt spam. =D Talent Calculator Link Variants: ---Trade out Dark Pact, put 5/5 in Improved Immolate, 4/5 Emberstorm, and get Conflag. Less mana, more fire. ---If Immolate just isn't your style (??!!), those 4 points can go elsewhere in the Destro tree. ---If you are having an issue with threat, which you might, you could trade out a point in SoulSiphon or Fel Concentration (especially if you don't spend a lot of time with other 'Locks) for that second point in Imp. Drain Soul ---You could trade the 5 points in Emberstorm for Demonic Embrace, if you want that extra 15% stam. Level 60 Builds Note: The following builds are designed for level 60 characters and do not take into account talents introduced in 2.0.1. DP / Finisher (35/5/11) Talent Calculator Link This build dabbles in all three talent trees, and is by far the most potent of the Dark Pact based builds. It's geared toward low end initial damage, with high yield after a few seconds (giving you the ability to open up with DOTs immediately with any decent tank in the group). In 5 and 10 man instances it will be completely unrivaled on the damage meters in the right gear (due to DOTs receiving the full advantage of +damage gear). 5 points are spent in the Demonology tree for group support purposes(Improved Healthstone, and Improved Imp), and 11 points in Destruction to obtain Shadowburn. This build works great for PvP, PvE, Grinding, and Farming. The sustained "rolling" damage, and shortened cast time of shadow bolt (and the frequent instant cast ability granted by the shadow trance, which is triggered often due to the extreme use of Improved Corruption, and Drain Life) make for a high damage output over the course of any group fight. Coupled with the ability to "Drain Tank" if you should pull aggro from a mob. The aim of this spec is to lay up to 4 DOTs on ALL targets, and move back to drain the life of the MT's target, releasing an instant cast Shadow Bolt every time your Nightfall procs (all targets are now being damaged by you, while also healing you) and finish them all with your Shadowburn. Due to the incredibly high, seemingly uncontrollable constant damage output of this spec, its very difficult to survive in an instance at maximum damage output without a Paladin's Blessing of Salvation and a VERY able bodied Tank. Also, the high level of mana consumed by this build may cause the need to actually use Dark Pact in combat, in conjunction with Life Tap and actually drink between fights (when fighting multiple opponents). Without a doubt, the most fun 51 point build for a Warlock. Everyone will tell you that you are crazy, until they see what you can do. (This is a seemingly, previously unreleased build which has remained my absolute favorite since the day i hit 60, and could create it) This build is very dependent on Level 60 solo - 10 man runs, and loses most of its effectiveness in larger raids - A more versatile "Cookie Cutter" build, such as MD/Ruin, or SM/Ruin are often recommended. Edit - This may become a more viable raid build with the coming increase in debuff slots in the next patch (2.0.1?) - Added by Meghadys- 60 Warlock/Skywall(US) 11/02/2006 (21:12 EST) Dark Pact (31/--/--) Talent Calculator Link This build is perhaps one of the best known builds to grind (killing monsters in rapid succession to get exp) with. It utilizes Improved Corruption, Siphon Life, and Drain Life (along with Fel Concentration) to "Drain Tank" (using Drain Life and Fel Concentration together to be able to take hits, deal damage, and heal at the same time) to kill. Many say that Siphon Life is not worth using unless the full duration is used up, but it can also be used to deal damage as fast as possible. With all the abilities to gain life, Improved Life Tap becomes a crucial component to this build because the warlock can Life Tap to convert HP to mana and then drain some more. This build will usually drain more HP than it will lose which is why Life Tap is used. Dark Pact is used in between fights. It is ideal to use an Imp because it has the largest mana pool of all the pets and also have the highest spirit and, therefore, the highest mana regeneration rate. For this reason it is colloquially referred to as the "mana battery." The Imp will remain Phase Shifted to minimize the chances of it getting killed and to conserve mana for Dark Pact. SM / Ruin (30/0/21) Talent Calculator Link This talent spec focuses on Affliction/Destruction, utilizing two main talents: Shadow Mastery and Ruin. Shadow Mastery is the second-to-last talent on the Affliction tree, and increases all shadow damage done by 10% (when maxed out). Ruin is near the end of the Destruction tree, and increases the critical strike bonus of Destruction spells by 100% instead of 50%. This allows your damage over time spells and your Shadow Bolts to be as powerful as they can be, which are your main sources of damage in high level instances. This is an average spec for PvP combat, as you can damage your opponents with damage over time and Shadow Bolt. Notice again that this build is oriented on DPS. You have to decide whether you want high damage output of this build or more survivability from a Soul Link build. SM / Ruin (PvP) (30/0/21) Talent Calculator Link This spec is similar to the above SM/Ruin spec but is more focused on getting the most out of your DOTs. This is better geared toward PvP play than raiding due to the 16 debuff cap that will normally be filled by the rest of your raid. In this spec, Improved Curse of Agony is favoured over Curse of Exhaustion, to deal the most damage possible (since the CoA may not stay on the target long enough to deal its final deadly damage). Amplify Curse is also sacrificed in favour of filling Suppression with 5 points. SM / DS (30/21/0) Talent Calculator Link This talent uses only Affliction and Demonology. It's two key talents are Shadow Mastery and Demonic Sacrifice. Shadow Mastery is the second-to-last talent on the affliction tree and it increases shadow damage by 10% when five points are put into it. Demonic Sacrifice is 21 points into the Demonology tree and allows you to sacrifice your pet for a powerful buff. This talent build is not very strong in PvP. However, it is generally accepted to be second to none when it comes to farming efficiency. It also can be very powerful in raids if your fellow raiders do not mind you sacficing your pet. The strategy for farming with this build is to sacrifice your Voidwalker for health regen and then apply DoTs to several targets. For PvP this build is not very effective as it lacks the necessary burst damage. Either sacrifice your voidwalker or succubus for either health regeneration or higher spell damage and then proceed to unload all your damaging DoTs onto the target and try to keep him feared. This same strategy is used for farming high level elites. This build's stength is farming and while it is decent in instances it is fairly bad in PvP. Demonology Level 70 Builds The Demonology talent tree and the use of summoned demons are what mainly distinguishes a Warlock from a Mage. Demonic Tactics / Ruin (MD/Ruin with DT) (0/40/21) Talent Calculator Link The ideas behind this talent specification is: * The Demonology talents gives a lot of +dmg, especially with a summoned pet. It is not unknown to use an Imp on passive which will lessen threat, but a Succubus will add additional 10% damage instead (matching Shadow Mastery in the Affliction tree), as well as acting like a DoT. * Demonic sacrifice can be used for cases where there is no use of a pet (especially some boss fights and fights with AoE problems). * Soul Link is as always nice to have in PvP, but also because of the additional 5% +dmg. * The main damage in this build is based on only doing CoA (in case the mob lives long enough), and then spamming Shadow Bolts. This will take good advantage of the improvements in the Destruction tree. * While +crit is of less interest for affliction builds, this build will benefit highly from it. * An alternative build is to spend 5 points on improving the Succubus (Improved Succubus and Improved Lash of Pain) instead of 5% increased crit chance (Demonic Tactics). While this will lessen the Shadowbolts a little, it will allow for a more deadly Succubus with improved seduction. Can be quite useful in many instances. Felguards "R" US (--/41+/--) Talent Calculator Build Some points of interest with this basic talent specification: * It may be a good idea to set 2 talent points on Improved Health Funnel instead of Improved Healthstone. Especially for solo grinding where you will Health Funnel a lot, but only use the Healthstone sometimes. Felguard/Drain tank (9/42/0) Talent calculator link This build puts 42 points into Demonology to get Felguard plus 2/3 Mana Feed, coupled with 2/2 Improved Life Tap for quick mana recovery for you and your pocket warrior. Also 2/2 Soul Syphon increases your ability to drain tank. if you plan on leveling with this build, i would suggest investing in improved corruption before starting on the demonology tree. less casting time means killing things a lot quicker, which means gaining levels a lot quicker. Level 60 Builds Nightfall / Soul Link (20/31/0) Talent Calculator Link Soul Link builds perhaps have the best survivability of all the warlock builds. With the build's ability to split 30% of the damage taken to the pet (via Soul Link) and the ability to use Drain Life with a 30% chance of not getting interrupted (through Fel Concentration), the damage taken is very minimal. However, this build requires a rather large amount of +damage/+shadow damage before it becomes efficient (around +300). The pet of choice is usually the Felhunter; the ability to counter (Spell Lock), dispel magic (Devour), deal damage, and have the second most hp and armor next to the Voidwalker makes it an ideal pet to use. On top of those properties, Master Demonologist allows the warlock to receive +60 resistance to all schools of magic at level 60. Above this, Nightfall allows Shadow Bolts to be shot at instant speed. This will provide with lots of instant Shadow Bolts through Nightfall along with lots of increased HP with Soul Linked pets, near-instant summon of a pet (Fel Domination), along with sacrificed demons for excellent buff opportunities. A strong PvP build that works with PvE end game raids as well. Soul Link +2 (9/31/11) Talent Calculator Link Soul Link, but counters the disadvantage of speccing heavily in Affliction by providing more reliable Burst DPS (2.5 second Shadow Bolts, and instant-cast Shadowburn). Soul Link Allround (7/31/13) Not much of a difference to the one mentioned before in terms of numbers... but you wouldn't believe what 2 talent points spent in improved Lash of Pain or improved Firebolt can change. However due to a bug only 1 point in imp. Firebolt is advisable as the 2. one has no effect so put it in +1% Crit or whatever you like. When playing with a succubus or imp these 2 points can significantly increase your overall DPS. MD / Ruin (0/30/21) Talent Calculator Link This is a very versatile build that can be used for many purposes. The 2.5 second Shadow Bolts in combination with Ruin will allow you to put out much damage. Pets can be summoned in 6seconds (normal summon 10 seconds). This build includes the talents Demonic Sacrifice and Master Demonologist, which will both allow the Warlock to adapt in many ways. This is a good build for tanking the twin emperors in AQ40. Weaknesses of this build are less powerful DoTs and lack of Improved Life Tap. Destruction Level 70 Builds DS/S&F (0/21/40) This is a heavy damage raid spec. http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=NZbxczIdzZxx0tr0tVuV Talent Calculator Link This build is similar to the old lvl 60 DS/ruin build except instead of sacrificing the Succubus to buff your shadow bolts, you sac your imps to buff your incinerates. Not only do the 'locks get +15% fire damage with the DS, but also, they get +10% fire damage from Emberstorm, +20% extra spell damage to incinerate (which becomes more effective than SM with just 300 or so spell damage, easy to achieve in TBC), and they get backlash which not only grants +3% additional crit chance and also 25% chance to have your next shadow bolt or incinerate instant cast when physically struck. With the addition of conflagrate, this is a potent raid build in terms of damage output, but be prepared to make use of your new soul shatter ability! Comment: While this is a good build for DPS in instances and raids, you'll really have a hard time with PVP, and you'll have to bite the bullet solo-farming shards. There's a synergy between you and fire mages in your party as they will be 15% more effective with Curse of Elements, and you'll be 10-15% more effective with their Scorch. You're basically to them like a shadow priest is to an affliction 'lock. Be nice to your healers with this build. You won't have as good endurance as say (40/21/0), and your lifetaps won't hit for as much, so you're very reliant on those heals. To maximize DPS, the pattern for this build is: *Immolate *CoE *Incinerate *Incinerate *Incinerate *Conflagrate *repeat until enemy is at low health *Incinerate *Conflagrate *Shadowburn To maximize DPM, the pattern for this build is: *Corruption *CoA *Immolate *Incinerate *Incinerate *Incinerate *Conflagrate *repeat, and reapply Corruption and CoA as necessary. Incinerate Fire Spec (7/13/41) This build is similar to the one above but without Demonic Sacrifice. The basic idea is to keep up Curse of Elements, cast an Immolate, two-three Incinerates and blow up the Immolate with Conflagrate. DS is not to be recommended because it requires you to sacrifice your pet, which means that you will loose Blood Pact, which is very essential while grouping. In my opinion instant Corruption and Improved Life Tap are more useful than the talents beyond 13 points in Demonology. This is a very high damage group build which offers a very good alternative to a heavy Affliction spec. This is a very good spec for both PVE and PVP. If you are looking for a change from spamming Shadowbolt this spec might be just for you. http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=AV0bZfx00cZVx0tr0tVuq - View spec Nightfall / Shadowfury (NF/Conf with Shadowfury) (18/0/43) Heavy Destruction (Heavy Destruction 2.0.1) (--/--/41+) Shadow Conflagrate (7/0/44) http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=IV0bZZxx0tr0tGuAo [ Talent Calculator 7/0/44 ] This build is a good balanced pvp and pve build. It can deal great amount of damage in little time. It also has a variety of talents that help a lot in pvp such as nether protection which will make you defeat shadow priests/other warlocks without it/fire mages 70% of the time with a 30% chance to become inmune to most of their spells. The new intensity has a 70% chance to resist interruption in any destruction spell which makes you able to shoot shadowbolts while a warrior/rogue is beating on you. With backlash and devastation you got a total of +8% crit chance with spells. In raiding PVE the dps is very good. It is comparable with SM/ruin and other older builds because shadow and flame adds a 20% more of spell damage to your shadow bolts which makes up for the loss of 10% damage in shadow with SM or 15% with succubus sacrificed. Improved life tap lets you have better mana efficiency in raids.instant corruption is great for spamming in pvp. Soul leech is more friendly in a pve enviroment but still useful sometimes in PVP because it has a good list of spells that have a pretty big chance to heal you(30%). Shadowfury is a great spell to play with in PVP it is an aoe stun doing around 500ish damage with the ability to crit(The only other warlock AoE with this ability is Seed of Corruption). Shadowfury doesn't prove that great in PVE but it isn't bad if you consider it as a shadowburn with no shard cost and a stun. This build is perfectly balanced between PVP/PVE(raiding) Level 60 Builds Note: The following builds are designed for level 60 characters and do not take into account talents introduced in 2.0.1. Heavy Destruction (--/--/31+) Talent Calculater Link: 7/8/36 Talent Calculator Link: 0/10/41 Talent Calculator Link: 7/7/37 This build is very similar to being a mage with it's ability to nuke (deal a lot of damage at a short amount of time). Often refered to as a "Firelock" do to the extensive use of fire spells Immolate, Conflagrate, (occasional Soul Fire for PvP) and Searing Pain as main sources of damage. With Ruin, critical hits are 33% more damaging (making every critical hit deal 2 times more damage than normal non-critical hits). With Improved Searing Pain, the critical rate is very high and because Searing Pain has a short casting time, it makes it an ideal spell to use whenever Conflagrate is cooling down. For PvE, The pet of choice is the Imp, with Improved Imp and Improved Firebolt, it can deal 125 every second and it also gives the warlock a stamina buff through Blood Pact. For PvP, the pet of choice is usually a Succubus. The Succubus is used for two main reasons: One, it can use it's Seduce ability to hold people long enough for a Soul Fire to be used, and Two, it is the only way for Warlocks to deal with Fury Warriors reliably. A common PvP strategy for Destruction Heavy Warlocks is to Seduce with a Succubus, then use Shadow Bolt or, if there is time, Soul Fire, then follow up with Immolate, and a Fear. The opponent is the kept feared as much as possible, and Conflagrate used once an Immolate has landed. DoT's are used fairly often, but only as secondary damage. This build is mainly geared towards PvP because of the threat Searing Pain causes, and unless the tank is very good at holding aggro in a PvE environment, the warlock will be expecting to take some hits, causing the tank some frustration. This build also eats through mana very quickly because of the amount of high-cost spells that are used. Firemancer / Balanced Destruction Build (7/5/39) Talent Calculator Link This build is mainly meant for PvP with its majority of destruction talents. It can, however, have a great damage output in PvE too, if played skillfully as it utilizes most of the Must-Have talents, inluding Improved Life Tap for better Mana/Health efficiency, Demonic Embrace for the additional Health, Bane for increased DPS with the Destruction spells, Shadowburn for an additional finishing move and Ruin for higher Critical Strike damage. 5/5 Devastation gives this build a high natural Critical Strike chance with all Destruction spells and Improved Searing Pain makes Searing Pain a viable PvP tool with a very high natural crit chance. Intensity and Pyroclasm gives the Warlock class better AoE abilities. Nightfall / Conflagrate (19/0/32) Talent Calculator Link This build is mainly meant for PvP with its majority of destruction talents. It has the highest potential for burst direct damage of any build (Nightfall, Shadowburn, Conflagrate). Sacrifices 15% base STA (Demonic Embrace) for increased Affliction range, Fel Concentration, and Nightfall procs. Although this build is more focused towards PvP, this build can also be used in raids and can compete in damage with other raid builds. On the downside, the burst damage potential is an aggro magnet and very mana intensive. Some variations include dropping Emberstorm for Aftermath and Pyroclasm. Nightfall / Conflagrate (16/0/35) This build is a variation of the NF/Conflag build above, with important differences. Talent Calculator Link This build is meant to be a powerful and versitile 2.0.1 level 60 re-spec. Its large burst-damage capabilities as well as its Improved Curse of Agony, make this build an ideal one for Warlocks who wish to: * do some serious DPS in both PvP and raid environments * escape the mundane "Shadow Bolt spam" that DPS Warlocks are so familiar with * keep improved Life-Tap * increase the effectiveness of their AoE spells * not bother with juggling demons / need to keep their Imp out during raids The build puts emphasis on increasing fire damage, as well as maximising spell crit chance. This build is powerful and involved, and is recommended for experienced Warlocks, or those who desire to mash a bunch buttons during combat! The raiding Warlock must take care not to draw aggro away from the tank with this build, however the 10% threat reduction provided by Destructive Reach noticably supresses threat and effectively increases your available DPS in raids. How to play it: It's always wise to change your strategy based on how long you expect the target will take to die. Generally: Apply Corruption. Apply Immolate. Conflag (start cooldown). Immolate. Spam Shadow Bolt until Conflag cools down. Conflag. etc. use Shadowburn as a finishing move. If you are feeling lazy, the tried and true Shadow Bolt spam still works very well with this build. With increasing level, the idea of this build is to either a) maximise the Destruction tree, filling out Backlash first, then Emberstorm, or b) sacrifice a few talent points at the bottom of the Destruction tree in order to grab Empowered Corruption. Demonic Sacrifice-builds 30/21/0 19/21/11 One thing you should know: These builds are good for leveling, but still flexible enough to work for both PvP or instancing. Demonic Sacrifice grants the abilities to grind solo without even buying water or food (Sacrifice the voidwalker for 3% health regen every 4 seconds. Seeing as you should have 3000 - 4500 HP pre-MC, depending on your gear, this should be piece of cake). Nightfall is great for grinding as it allows you to fire off instant shadowbolts, improvements on drain life (imp. Drain Life / Fel Concentration) is also great. After these mandatory choices, it's up to you whether you want to put 12 points in Destruction for better PvE DPS or crits, or rather just do Shadow Mastery and Siphon Life for better grinding. Both works well out in any case, it's up to you. Of course, you need to have instant corruption and Demonic Embrace for this talent build to work out. Seeing as there's no better places to put the points anyway in the first tier of Demonology and Affliction, it should hardly be a problem anyway. If you choose to use the 12 points in Destruction after getting Nightfall and Amplify Curse in Affliction, you should also get Bane and Improved Shadow Bolt. This is about what you should need to know here. 7/23/21 This is a variation of the above builds, still centered around Demonic Sacrifice, but paired with Ruin instead of Nightfall for unlimited high damage Shadow Bolts and Immolate in soloing and instances. ---------- Category:Guides Category:Warlocks Category:Talents